Prospects for increasing small ruminant production
Prospects for the future expansion of sheep and goat production are excellent. Their high and increasing efficiency is due not only to their ability to use low quality feed stuffs and sparse natural forage but also to their early puberty, short gestation period, high prolificacy, rapid growth rate and good marketability within one season of forage alone. Sheep and goats do not compete with people, pigs or poultry for food because they can produce on forage alone and require little grain or concentrates for good production. Small ruminants produce about twice as much meat per animal unit in the tropics as cattle. Small ruminants compete well with other livestock in quality of meat produce. Meat from small ruminants is generally more tender than grass-fed beef because the animals can be marketed at a much younger age. Small ruminants are well suited to marginal land, abandoned crop land, eroding land and land not usable for other crops. Unproductive land covered with brush an shrub trees can be gradually cleared by sheep and goats followed by establishment of productive pastures. Sheep and goats tend to complement each other in grazing natural pastures. Sheep prefer finer plants and grass areas while goats prefer browse and brush. Both complement cattle because cattle need the fast growing coarser grasses found on the better land with ample rainfall. Sheep, goats and cattle should all be grazed together or on the same land where this is ecologically desirable and economically feasible, particularly on larger farms
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Texto biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Roma (Italia) FAO
1986
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